Greeting Your Customers (Increase Your Sales by 25%)

I’ve met several retail store owners who claim that greeting your customers can increase sales by more than 25%.

One unique entrepreneur owned a news/gift/stationery type store in the Citibank Building in Manhattan. He claimed to be doing about $250,000 in net profits per year. That’s the amount of money that he took home with him after rent, cost of goods, the cost of one additional employee, and other operational costs.

Most of his income came from greeting his customers. He knew perhaps 95% of the people that walked into his store. He knew which customers smoked which cigarettes. He knew which customers purchased which newspapers. He knew his lottery customers and their purchasing habits. He always made sure that he put aside certain magazines and newspapers for his customers that read those publications.

It was amazing to watch this guy. A customer would walk into the store and he would immediately find and hand over a Racing Newspaper for this customer. Another customer would come in for The New York Times and a certain cigar. This guy remembered everything. After watching his store for an hour and knowing his margins, I have no doubt that he was going home with $150,000 per year. (Just as an aside, the person who purchased The New York Times and a fancy cigar, made $1.5 million last year plus a $15 million bonus from Citibank...and yes, I made that up).

I am not sure that all retail stores will increase sales by 25% by greeting customers, but I have no doubt that a proper greeting will INCREASE SALES by at least 10%.

Look at two very successful operations. Staples and BestBuy. I actually enjoy walking into my local Staples. Whenever I walk into the store, I am greeted by a smiling person who enthusiastically says hello and asks me if I need help finding any item. I probably know the store better than the employees and always decline the offer. The greeter enthusiastically offers assistance should I need it. BestBuy always has a pleasant person at the front door just to say, “Welcome to BestBuy.”

I avoid going into stores where the employees ignore you and talk to each other. That’s a big turnoff for customers. I really don’t like having a sales person follow me around the store. Nothing worse than picking up a shirt and having an annoying person say that it really looks nice. Who asked?

Greeting customers is just so important and an art. Here are some rules that I made up:

#1...Your employees work in your store at the pleasure of your customers. Employees should never speak to each other when a customer is in the store. Pay your employees an extra $1 per hour to be friendly. Fire any employee that is joking or communicating with another employee when a customer is in the store (or in the general vicinity of a customer). Marriott and Hilton Hotels actually mandate that every employee must say hello to hotel guests each and every time they are near a guest. Employees are not permitted to chat with each other when a guest is close by.

#2...Train your employees to be real. Hire the right employees. If you own a clothing store or hardware store, you don’t want someone who blindly greets a customer because you told him to do so. You need employees that actually enjoy speaking and communicating with people. Your customers aren’t stupid. They know and feel the difference between a waiter or waitress that is friendly because they have to be and one that genuinely likes what they are doing.

#3...Train. Train. Train. You need to train your employees to do the right thing. Being friendly doesn’t always come naturally. You need to remind your employees that they are there for the customers and that you expect them to greet and be friendly to your customers. When you hire employees, you need to hire those employees that will most likely mesh with your customers.

#4...You don’t need a car sales person (or at least what many people envision a car sales person to be). I don’t advocate hiring or encouraging employees to follow customers around your store and push them into buying. What you need are employees who genuinely like people, like helping people, enjoy people, who understand your products, and who have plenty of enthusiasm.

#5...Each of your employees need to be psychiatrists. Or, you need to give your employees psychology lessons. You greet your customer and need to “get” the customer. “Good morning. Can I help you find anything?” If the customer nods his head and keeps walking, leave him alone. The good morning is good enough. On the other hand, if the customer wants to engage in a conversation, hopefully related to items in your store, your employee needs to take part in the conversation.

#6...Your employees need to be on the right side of the thin line between being real and being phony. You don’t want enthusiastic phonies working in you store who are talking and helping customers because you told them to or they have to. You need employees that genuinely like working with customers.

Have you ever gone to a doctor that appears to hate his patients? We normally prefer doctors who have some sense of customer service. We normally prefer a doctor who takes the time to explain his diagnosis. We also prefer doctors who appear to really want to do a good job and are knowledgeable.

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